Posted By Amanda Collins on August 28, 2009

How are you keeping in contact with your customers and potential clients? I recently sat down with a colleague who said she didn’t feel it was imperative to stay in touch with her clients since they were mostly one-shot transactions. However, what if situations change – or, better yet – they want to refer you?

When I worked in college admissions and marketing, I was in charge of creating the corporate communications strategy. I designed a whole comm flow of what we would do when we received an inquiry, following that person down the admissions funnel to enrollment (or not). There were many levels of “touch,” all with the intent of staying top of mind for applicants. Business owners and developers should be doing the same, creating a series of ways to stay in touch with their clients. Of course, it could take all day to develop a strategy, so let me give you a few hints:

Blog
Everyone knows they should be doing this, but too many are not. It’s pretty simple, and I outlined it in a previous blog. Get that blog up to drive traffic, gain more followers to your site and newsletter, and brand yourself as an expert.

Write a newsletter
Keep track of your clients and let them know what’s new with you in a monthly newsletter. It’s a great way to share your blogs with your readers and, again, drive traffic to your site.

Send out mailings
Occasionally it’s good to go above and beyond and really reach out to your clients. This could be an annual calendar, magnet with a special discount, postcard, newsletter, or “lumpy mail.” My promo guru helps me create all kinds of fun things to share with clients; I greet all in-person folks with medical-themed office supplies.

Have a different approach for different audiences
After you have siphoned off your different markets, approach them differently. Maybe loyalty rewards for current customers or incentives for those who’ve not yet signed up for your services. Remember the goal is to develop relationships, stay top of mind, and – ultimately – increase sales.

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Posted By Amanda Collins on August 14, 2009

Whether you’re a business owner, sales rep, or job seeker, you’ve likely attended a networking event where you’ve had to give your 15- or 30-second commercial. As a business owner, I go to these often. I even sub at many BNI meetings, where some offer 60 seconds to say pretty much nothing.

The BNI adage is, “You have to be specific to be terrific.” The crazy thing is that, at one of the BNI groups where I sub, two members used absolute no-nos in their commercials. An Arbonne representative said, “I can help anyone with skin,” and the chiropractor said, “I can help anyone with a spine.” Seriously, it was all I could do not to laugh. These are the examples that are used to NEVER say. When you say “anyone,” people typically hear “no one.”

How do you improve your value statement in 30 seconds? The golden rule is to always consider what you can do to help listeners. If you’re asking for a specific referral, make it specific. The photographer at another BNI group almost always mentions a name. Granted, no one in the room may know that person, but it’s worth a shot. And you can’t be more specific than saying a name. If you’re not looking for one particular person, personalize your approach. Try something like, “When you’re talking to your friends and they say, ‘I’m concerned that my company will be laying off soon,’ – that’s the perfect referral for me.”

Don’t talk about what you do; talk about how you help. For instance (not that this is perfect), I say:

“I’m Amanda Collins, Chief of Staff with The Grammar Doctors. I help you stay in front of your targeted audience through strategic marketing in the form of blogs, newsletters, advertorials, and résumés. If you’d prefer to write these items yourself, I can also edit them to make sure they’re perfect! No matter what your objective is, The Grammar Doctors has the prescription for your word ailments.”

I don’t typically say who my target audience is because, in my experience, I’m usually the only person around who does what I do. Also, once I added “products” to my commercial (as opposed to just services: writing and editing), I noticed that my positive feedback and referrals skyrocketed.

So start thinking about your value proposition. How can you help people? Who’s your best client? Would you be interested in listening to what you’re saying? It’ll likely take some practice and testing to get a few great commercials, but if you’re focused on your listener, you’ll see a difference in the feedback you receive.

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Posted By Amanda Collins on August 3, 2009

When I first launched my business, I had it all wrong. I was living by the credo introduced in “Field of Dreams”: If you build it, they will come. I figured that I would go out to networking events and just end up meeting people who would naturally need my services and become clients. I just needed to show up. Luckily, time has made me wiser than I was when I started.

Networking is an art. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you probably won’t be effective. On the networking circuit, there are a few different types of networkers, some good, some not so much. More of the obvious types you’ve probably encountered include:

• The Card Passer: You know the guy I mean. He’s the one who’s leaving cards on every table, making sure you have one in your hand either during or immediately following the handshake, and somehow manages to get cards into the stalls of the bathrooms – both genders!
• The Wallflower: “I just sit here at the bar and people come up to me.” If you’re gorgeous or in the way of getting alcohol (or both!), this may work. However, the reason for talking to you may have little to do with business and probably won’t turn into much more than a potential story to tell the next day.
• No-Card Guy: As a wordsmith, it’s funny to me anyway when people ask, “Do you have a card?” but this person actually says no! Who goes to an event without cards? If that’s the case, just stay home and stop wasting time because the likelihood you’ll follow up with the folks who gave you cards is slim.

When you go to a networking event, follow a few simple guidelines and you’ll find the experience to be one you’re willing – and eager! – to repeat:

• Take a slew of business cards, but only hand them out to people with whom you’ve spoken or made a connection. And look at each business card you receive, so people feel you value your time with them.
• Try to have five- to ten-minute conversations with a handful of people. Canvassing the room saying hi to everyone isn’t nearly as meaningful.
• Introduce people. If you go with a networking buddy, take turns choosing people to meet and then introduce each other to the new connections.
• Mingle! If you’re not in the mood to talk and “bring it,” stay home.
• Ask key questions: “How may I help you?” “Who is your best customer?” “Where would you like your business to be in five years?” You’ll get to a relationship faster.
• Don’t have expectations of making money. The goal of networking is to create relationships; the money will come in time.

It takes some practice to be the life of the networking party, especially if you’re not an extrovert (no problem for me there), but it’s well worth the investment. Seal the deal by following up with an e-mail, phone call, or hand-written note and you’ll be well on your way to building your business!

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Posted By Amanda Collins on August 2, 2009

As a business owner, I am out on the local networking scene on a regular basis, going to old and new events weekly to meet people and see friends. When I go out, new people naturally gravitate to me to find out what I do because I am wearing scrubs and a stethoscope. So, because that happens, I make it clear that I will “pimp out” my friends and colleagues, introducing them to new folks with a quick “testimonial” to create an instant connection. The thing that surprises me is that almost no one else does that.

How hard is it to introduce people? Isn’t that a skill we learned in elementary school? “Joan, this is Jim. Jim is an electrician with ABC Company; Joan owns a marketing company that specializes in working with new startups.” Simple. Now they know what the other does, have a warm introduction, and you’ve built a basis for further conversation. But recently, at a large event where I was in a small group of four, one of the people three of us knew walked up. No one bothered to introduce our new addition to the man she didn’t know – even though everyone knew the status. So I was yelling across to connect them. Of course, being me, I called them all on it, but they seemed genuinely surprised and hadn’t thought of making the introduction themselves.

So, because I help people meet others – and will do this introduction thing with strangers too – I tend to have people wanting to go out and network with me. It’s not a bad thing at all, and if you practice common courtesy and manners on the networking scene, you might see that by paying it forward, you’ll actually get a great return.

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